Couple Questions RE: Dump trucking

1. I get paid % , work is mostly by the tonnage or by the load. Sometimes I get some hourly work but since I have an aluminum trailer they like to use it for the tonnage.

2. We haul for 2 larger outfits and one pays every 5 weeks the other every 7

3. As mentioned already everywhere, sometimes you will make more sometimes you will make less and work more hours having your own truck. Some people do not want the extra stress and headaches with owning a truck and prefer to go home after work/ on Saturday others want to tinker around their equipment. To each their own.

 

Road construction is booming right now because of the stimulus. I think the biggest problem these guys have right now is finding drivers. BUT roadwork and contractor related work operates on senority. Whoever has worked for them the longest gets called first, and gets let go last. Someone new, it's the opposite. Also, guys that have multiple trucks get a better rate than an owner operator. The contractor sets the rate, by the way, and it is a standard rate that they pay the trucks. Here it is about $65 to $75 an hour.

Money can be made, but it is often feast or famine. Long days or no work at all. Developers are notorious for not paying their bills, although I think the quarries and contractors are pretty good.

 

Also I know here in md some road contacts require minority owned trucks. I worked for a paving company most of our leased trucks were pretty beat up. There rate was 65 hr and some of those guys would run non stop for days.

 

Yes. If you are married, put your wife"s name on the business. She's going to take at least half, anyway. lol. :smt102:smt079 :smt021

 

Not really harsh they guys are all about there gold chains and personal cars instead of maintaining their trucks

 

That's EXACTLY it. All trucking businesses require reinvestment back into the business. Anybody that can't do this, or even worse just doesn't do this is headed down a BAD road... and it won't end well.

 

I realize that you are in a totally different part of the country than I am. However there are some basic truths that apply, no matter what part of the country you are in, or what kind of trucking you are interested in getting into.

FIRST AND FOREMOST: Do NOT go out and buy or lease a truck until you have been around the industry long enough to find out some things about it!

Trucking is by nature a job with long hours. Driving a dump truck is no exception! Be prepared to work as many hours as the law allows, and probably then some more!

Find a job driving someone else's truck for at the very least a year, probably more like five. It will take you that long to get totally accustomed to the work, the hours, the laws, the requirements of the different jobs, and much more.

I cannot count the number of owner/operators that I have seen come and go here in SW Utah in the last 20 years. The vast majority of them, have not lasted in business for five years. In fact, most of them haven't made it for two years. And some of these guys were actually experienced drivers, but had no business plan, no business sense and either had no one to guide them, or were unwilling to take good advice.

Then there are the ones who were injured or killed on the job. One guy lost a leg, another one lost both feet. A catastrophic injury or illness when you own your own truck is a double catastrophe. Working around the aggregate industry, you naturally work around a lot of big, unforgiving equipment, not just the truck you are driving.

You will likely become an expert in operating a "Mexican Backhoe." (aka shovel...) Chances are you will learn to level asphalt, and probably learn to shovel a lot of it by hand. (You say your a Truck driver? Well get out of your truck, get your butt over here and give us a hand, AND BE QUICK ABOUT IT!) Of course a lot of that will depend on whether you are union or not, but in Utah you won't be. Don't know about where you are.

Just hire on somewhere and give it a try, before you even consider buying your own truck. Particularly a dump truck.

 

I am more than a few states away in CA but I will answer according to what I know here.

1. It varies by company on how you get paid, some pay hourly, some pay per load, percentage, etc. I prefer hourly, because in dump trucking their are often delays that are out of your control that will not be compensated if you are paid on a per-load basis. It's much less stressful to know you are getting paid while the crap goes on around you.

2. Again, it depends on the company. Most common in this area is net 30 if the companies have set up credit with each other, cash up front is never refused.

3. Benefits to each. Here in CA right now with the smog laws, I get to drive a 2014 Peterbilt while feeling no pain in my own wallet. Companies are being forced to upgrade due to the latest CA compliant equipment as well as owner/operators. O/O's get to run their own equipment, choose their own loads, set their own schedule.....but that doesn't come without paying for their own fuel, tires, upgrades, etc. Working for the right company will allow you to make a livable wage while leaving the payments and bills to the truck owner, you'll just have to sacrifice some of the freedom and independence that comes with owning your own truck.